


For Her Majesty, the Queen

by karrenia_rune



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Genre: Birthday Presents, F/M, community:50scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-17
Updated: 2011-05-17
Packaged: 2017-10-19 12:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting someone you love the perfect birthday present is difficult even when the person giving the gift is royalty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Her Majesty, the Queen

Disclaimer: This world and the characters who inhabit are the original creations of Lewis Carroll, or whomever owns his estate now; they are not mine.  
"For Her Majesty the Queen" by Karen

'What do you get the woman who has everything? That is a puzzle that even ordinary men with the best of intentions struggle with, and certainly I am no exception," thought the King of Hearts as hovered around the rose hedges that surrounded their square. Behind him and in the distance he could hear the excited shouts and the occasional shouts of the croquet players.

For a fact he knew that invariably and without a shadow of a doubt his wife, the Queen of Hearts would emerge the victor in these games of skill that she so enjoyed playing. For his part, he took part in the spirit of comradeship and more than anything else, to humor her.

He loved her, but let's face, he was small and awkward and appeared to be quite dwarfed size-wise to his tall, and imposing spouse. Normally he did not mind, much, but there were times that it did get to be a trial.

The Red King was momentarily distracted from his meandering thoughts when he heard a loud whirring and thundering coming from behind where he stood by the rosebushes, and whirled around in time to avoid being beaned on the head by a stray croquet ball; one of the red and orange stripped ones.

The ball landed in the soft spongy ground by his feet with a plonk and settled into the wet grass. While he bent to pick it up and hefted it in his hand. Perhaps, it was the near collision or perhaps his subconscious had simply tired of treading around in circles, but an idea came to him of exactly what gift to get his wife for her birthday.

They no longer numbered them, since time in Wonderland seamed to flow as seamlessly by as the flowing of river; so it made less sense to number them. Although, it did occur to me that some sort of time-keeping device might be useful if someone were to invent one. In fact, I should really get back to work on that preliminary sketch of a water clock and combination bean-counter," he muttered aloud.

He left off on the heels of that thought and plodded across the grass sward over to the playing field where the croquet players were gathered and waited while an approving shout went up at particularly spectacular shot that went sailing through two of the hedgehog wickets was made by the court advisor.

"Greetings dear," he said tilting his head to look up at her with a happy if wistful smile. "I found your favorite ball and brought it back."

"Oh, Hello," she replied swiveling around to face him, a tight not entirely displeased smile on her lips.

He offered the stray ball to her, which she accepted after a moment, and then placed her flamingo mallet on the ground where it quickly unfolded itself and scampered away to safer environs. She apparently did not notice or care, but turned the ball about before she said:

"It is too bad you missed this particular tournament it would seem that I am experiencing a particular bad run of luck. I do hope you have better news for me."

"Indeed," he vigorously nodded his head up and down, the motion bringing on a sudden bout of dizziness that had not previously noticed as put down as a result of the near miss of the croquet ball. "I had thought that this year, I would make your present, one crafted by my own two hands."

"A hand-made gift," she replied as she mulled over this novel concept over in her mind.

"I don't know, but I am willing to give it a try."

"Oh," he stuttered, "That's wonderful, simply wonderful," he replied, pausing to catch his breath and steady his voice. "I think you will like it. It is just a matter of acquiring the parts I need and then assembling it."

She looked at him, his pale white face aglow with the fervor of this new project, the color in his cheeks standing out as bright red as the rows and rows of rose hedges that encircled the green-swards and heaved a sigh that seemed to come from the bottom of her pointy-toed shoes.

As much as she wished to always have things go her way, now and then she figured that she could afford to be the bigger person, no pun intended. He seemed genuinely happy and she did like to see him happy; now seemed like a perfectly reasonable opportunity to let slip a little bit her tightly held grip on the reins of control.

She smiled and reached out to take his hands in hers. "Yes, my dear that is a simply marvelous idea. By all means, go ahead with this project of yours. I am certain I will love whatever you make for me."

"Yes! Yes!" exclaimed the King of Hearts once she had let go of his hands, and he nearly fell over backwards and jostled the court official that had made the game winning shot. Pardoning himself and making hasty excuses to the others gathered around them, he left at quick trot for the palace with a happy smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted for the live journal community 50scenes, Table 1, prompt #19 control


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